Help in arranging a wedding in Rome for 2009

[cathnmike]

Actually and with respect Skichi - in terms of Gabriella's photographer, the information is accurate. He is a brilliant photographer and he is a fashion photographer - if you want to see any of my photos let me know. They are the most amazing wedding photos anyone who has ever seen them have seen. I'm 54 years old and he made me look like a youngster! The shots were all completely unlike anything I've ever seen before, imaginative and fun, and we looked around literally dozens of photographers in the UK and Italy before we chose.

The Hassler is OK if you like that kind of thing - Gabriella did show us that too, but apart from the extortionate price it's very starched and formal. We wanted relaxed and intimate, and got it in bucketfuls.

So I guess you pays your money and you takes your choice! But do have faith in Gabriella - everything she says is absolutely accurate and you can have faith that she wil organise you exactly the wedding you want.

Good luck to anyone looking for a wedding in Rome, or any part of Italy!

[Skichi]

I'd love to see the images. I've never, ever seen a fashion photographer photograph a wedding before. Even the celebrities don't use fashion photographers and tbh it's almost certainly as much due to the fact that fashion guys aren't interested as much as it's not their skillset generally to do it. To explain: fashion is generally all about the clothes and photographers love to use angles and bodyshapes which are not necessarily flattering. The advantage is that they use great models with great figures. Another difference is that with fashion on location, they can normally select a great set for their shots regardless of the light that exists there and then they bring in lighting to make it all work. Good wedding photographers have to work the other way around. You have to find where the light is and make use of what you have with the exception of perhaps small off-camera flash units. Your images have to be flattering and you normally have an extremely short time-scale to achieve your shots. Unlike fashion, there's no art director, there's no re-shoot option if it doesn't work.

I have one friend who shoots beautiful fashion work. It would take me an age to learn what he does consistently. Would he shoot a wedding? Not for all the money in the world - it scares him silly.

If you've found a good fashion photographer who also shoots weddings then I'm seriously interested. I believed I knew of probably all of the top wedding photographers in the world. I'm genuinely interested to see what he did that's so different.

[Skichi]

Hassler starched? Seriously? That suite and roof-terrace is about as relaxed and informal a setting as I've ever seen. Even the children were enchanted by it all & the staff were fantastic - as you'd expect in (possibly) Europes best Hotel. I've worked weddings in many many stuff hotels, but this isn't one of them - hence why I guess it's so popular with celebrities.

[Gala Placidia]

Congratulations and best wishes!

[snowhazey]

Hi,
Just as an update, we decided to go with Gabriella for our wedding planning, and she is so lovely. We met her in November when we had a couple of nights in Rome and she has been really helpful, I'm not so sure we could have managed the paper work without her! One useful note on sending the paperwork by registered post to Italy. Our wedding planner likes to use DHL for sending important documents so that she can track them, but if you just go direct to DHL they said they charge £60, but we discovered Staples do DHL service points at some of their stores and we were only charged £20 for this service - quite a big saving!

[mickys]

Hi! I'm an Italian Wedding Planner and I live in Rome. To book a venue for a civil wedding in Rome you need to have all your paperwork done, so everything will be confirmed when you personally go at the office and book the date. They don't accept booking without paperwork.A wedding promise is required a couple of days before. European citizens usually don't need to go personally to their Embassy. A planner is advised because it is very hard to communicate in English with public offices here and the procedure is quite boring. If you decide to be helped by a planner please contact me, we also have quite a few locations to propose.
Ciao
Micky {MODERATION} email address removed; contact via PM